Dipa Karmakar – The Story of the Golden Girl

Life is a series of ups and downs. It is not a bed of roses. Human beings have to go through both good and bad times because they are all interrelated. For every successful ending, the trail is to be embedded with pain.

One such glittering example of never giving up which inspires most of the people is the story of Indian gymnast Dipa Karmakar.

It was an electrifying moment when Indians around the world on their feet were cheering for the 23-year-old from Tripura of the North Eastern part of India as she ran to the vaulting horse for the finals of the individual vault event in artistic gymnastics at Rio Olympics 2016. Dipa, in the finals, scored 14.866 on her first vault and 15.266 for her second vault, the Produnova Vault. As per the final results, Dipa scored an average of 15.066 and was placed in the finals.

Although Dipa didn’t win any medal her performance did make every Indian proud.

But the struggle she had and the result she achieved was much more than the medals she missed by 0.15 points.

Dipa Karmakar had already written history as the first Indian female gymnast to qualify for the Olympics and the first Indian gymnast to win a medal at the Commonwealth Games when she won the Bronze in 2014.

She was one of the five women in the world to do the Produnova vault, the most successful and one of the most dangerous vaults performed currently.

The Dark Period Till the Brightness

A small town girl from Tripura, Dipa Karmakar has seen her journey from being a flat foot victim to being one the best gymnasts in the world.

She didn’t even have proper apparatus in her state’s gymnastics hall to practice. With the help and guidance of her sports Authority of India (SAI) coach Bishweswar Nandi, Dipa won her first international Bronze medal in 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games in the vaulting horse finals in which she attempted the Produnova vault. Soon after that Dipa Karmakar won one more bronze at the Asian Games for the same vault. As also the prestigious Arjuna award the very same year.

Karmakar started her school life in Abhoynagar Nazrul Samiti Vidyalaya, hailing from Agartala in Tripura started practicing gymnastics when she was 6 years old.

As already mentioned she had faltered foot an undesirable physical trait in a gymnast because it affects their performance. Through extensive training, she was able to develop an arch in her feet.

And finally, when Dipa was in the Olympics she defeated not only her physical disease but also the common notions prevalent in the society

It can be said that:

Her hard work really paid off

She could realize the sweet success that she got after spending years, months, hours in the gym

Dipa Karmakar is a real example of how one should achieve success under the banner of hard work.